16 ADVANTAGES OF THE SILO. 



Summarizing our considerations concerning the rela- 

 tive losses of food materials in the field-curing and silo- 

 ing of Indian corn, we may, therefore, say that far from 

 being less economical than the former, the silo is more 

 so, under favorable conditions for both systems, and that 

 therefore a larger quantity of food materials is obtained 

 by filling the corn crop into a silo than by any other 

 method of preserving it known at the present time. 



What has been said in the foregoing in regard to 

 fodder corn applies equally well to other crops put into 

 the silo. A few words will suffice in regard to two of 

 these, clover and alfalfa. Only a few accurate . siloing 

 experiments have been conducted with clover, but enough 

 has been done to show that the necessary losses in silo- 

 ing this crop do not much, if any, exceed those of Indian 

 corn. Lawes and Gilbert, of the Rothmasted Experiment 

 Station, England, placed 264,318 pounds of first and sec- 

 ond crop clover into one of these stone silos, and took 

 out 194,470 pounds of good clover silage. Loss in weight, 

 24.9 per cent. This loss fell, however, largely on the 

 water in the clover. The loss of dry matter amounted 

 to only 5.1 pep cent., very nearly the same amount of loss 

 as that which the same experimenter found had taken 

 place in a large rick of about forty tons of hay, after 

 standing for two years. The loss of protein in the silo 

 amounted to 8.2 per cent. In another silo 184,9'59 pounds 

 of second-crop grass and second-crop clover were put in, 

 and 170,941 pounds were taken out. Loss in gross weight, 

 7.6 per cent; loss of dry matter, 9.7 per cent.; of crude 

 protein, 7.8 per cent. 



In a siloing experiment with clover, conducted at the 

 Wisconsin Station, on a smaller scale, Mr. P. G. Short 

 obtained the following results: Clover put into the silo, 

 12,279 pounds; silage taken out, 9,283 pounds; loss, 24.4 

 per cent; loss of dry matter, 15.4 per cent.; of protein, 

 12.7 per cent. 



There is nothing in any of these figures to argue 

 against the siloing of green clover as an economical praf 



